A former Baxter County man, whose charges were dropped in January for allegedly threatening to kill his mother with a hatchet, is now making himself known to Izard County law enforcement.
Izard County Sheriff Jack Yancey says 41-year-old Bradley Glen Sellers of Calico Rock has been arrested on felony charges of terroristic threatening and possession of firearms by certain persons. His bond was set at $20,000.
According to the probable cause affidavit, an officer from the Izard County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to a residence along Roselawn Street in Calico Rock on March 4th for a domestic incident in progress.
When the officer arrived, he saw a man walking away from the residence with what appeared to be a gun tucked in his rear waistband under his coat. The officer stopped his patrol unit and ordered the man, later identified as Sellers, to raise his hands. The second time the order was issued, Sellers complied. With Sellers’ hands on the hood of the patrol car, the officer removed a .357 magnum with six rounds loaded in the cylinder from Sellers’ rear waistband.
Sellers identified himself and advised he is a convicted felon. The officer noted Sellers smelled heavily of intoxicants, had trouble maintaining his balance, had slurred speech, and bloodshot eyes.
When the officer spoke with the complainant at the residence, she said she and her fiancé had been arguing. Sellers allegedly told the couple if they didn’t stop arguing, he was going to start shooting through the walls.
Charges against Sellers in Baxter County Circuit Court were dropped at the request of the mother.
Seller’s mother, Melva Sellers, told Judge Gordon Webb she had been untruthful in her report to law enforcement about what had happened and her son’s involvement in the events.
Fourteenth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge said in January while the case against Bradley Sellers would be dropped, charges against his mother for making a false report were being considered.
Melva Sellers told the court it was actually an unidentified man who had wielded the hatchet. She said she and her son maintained an “open house” policy allowing people to stay in their home. She said because of that policy, people “came and went” frequently and she was unsure of the identity of the man who had actually threatened her with the ax.
She told the court she had come up with a rather bizarre plan to get rid of a woman who had a relationship with her son. She said she planned to falsely accuse her son of attacking her with the hatchet hoping he would be charged with a misdemeanor, which would land him in jail and keep him out of the house long enough to give her an opportunity to get rid of the unwanted female.
The mother said she was embarrassed over what she had done. She told the court she never intended for the situation to develop as it had and did not know her son would be charged with a felony.
Ethredge said the type charges Bradley Sellers faced were “victim driven” and if the victim was unwilling or had been untruthful in the information given to law enforcement, the state had little choice but to drop the case.
The original warrant in the case was issued March 1st last year, but Bradley Sellers was a fugitive until September 1st. He appeared on the “Most Wanted” list maintained by the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office.
He was taken into custody by Mountain Home Police officers after he bailed out of a vehicle in which he was a passenger when it was stopped by police near East Fourth and Foster Streets. Police eventually found Sellers hiding behind a shed after a short search.
The events leading up to the Baxter County Circuit Court session began February 22nd last year when Baxter County deputies responded to a report of a violent domestic disturbance at a residence along Timberlane Road.
It was during their initial contact with the victim, Melva Sellers, that she began to recount details of the attack to investigators — a story she recanted in court. Melva Sellers said her son had become angry with her because he had been put on probation and blamed his mother for is problems with the law.
The mother told the responding deputy during the confrontation her son had gotten a hatchet and threw it at her. She said the hatchet struck the wall and she kept washing dishes in hopes her son would calm down, but Bradley Sellers escalated the situation when he put the hatchet up to his mother’s neck and threatened to kill her.
In her original story, Melva Sellers told investigators she was able to get away from her son, went into her bedroom and eventually escaped through a window and went to another address to seek safety. In the mother’s original story, Bradley Sellers was said to have told her he wanted to kill her and further threatened he would do it “sooner or later.”
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